Last year, the National Labor Relations Board initiated a law suit against a company which fired a woman worker who mad abuse over her supervisor on the internet, Facebook. The Board announced that it is unfair discharge. According to the board’s announcement, “Expressing any complaints, dissatisfaction about company’s unfair decision or choice on Facebook or other SNSs (Social Network Service) is the freedom of expression. Giving opinions on colleague, supervisor or company is an appropriate action. It means that she has done nothing wrong.” However, the company which was given the lawsuit refuted the board’s statement as insisting that “the dismissal of her/ the reason of dismissal originated from her complicated wrong actions. She didn’t show us the appropriate actions but attacked her colleagues to speak out to the publicand even made a personal attack. Her actions must be unforgiven.”
In my opinion, making some nasty comments about somebody who is not happy with others could happen, and also is a kind of a catharsis. Especially, this phenomenon is more outstanding in our Confucian society, Korea.
Let’s make an easy situation to understand. There are two guys with different classes. A person with a low class is relatively short of opportunity for expressing his opinions with a high class, he can even be pressed down by the one with a high class. So, he would make bad or nasty comments about the guy with a high class to chase his stress away. But it is that not all the organizational members act like that. There may be a person who keeps and remains silent by just doing his job. However, it is an obvious fact that there are a lot of peoplewho would make abuse on somebody because they are not happy in their life.
Let’s get to the point. I also have been a member of society like school life, army, part-TIME job, so, sometimes I feel dissatisfaction with those life because I am not a perfect man. But with my military experience, I’ve realized a simple thing. Making nasty comments about somebody in a small way or in a direct manner is not a good solution to drive the negative mind away.
In the end, it would end up returning back to me as a curse when I become a leader in an organization. So, how should I react when I notice when somebody makes nasty comments about me? Honestly, who will remain still when he knows about abuse on himself?
After all, the most important thing is the mental attitude. In one of the views of Asian aspects, it says that “When you have a negative mind in your world, it would come to you as all the negative things. But when you try to keep positive, all the pessimistic force would go away from your mind and it would bring all the good results to you.” I couldn’t agree with this saying more. Even though the case what I’ve mentioned is not Korean’s matter, I hope the thing would bring a good solution to both sides soon because I can’t be sure it couldn’t happen in Korea.
I am doubtful that positivity can solve all problems — for example, keeping a positive mind will not prevent environmental collapse after our governments continue to ignore problems like toxic pollution, global warming, and ongoing extinction of many species worldwide. This may sound like an exaggeration, but it isn’t so crazy: recently, one scientific study suggested that our situation may even be the beginning of a mass extinction — something that has happened only five times before on our planet, but which usually involved the extinction of 75% of all species in the world. Keeping a positive mind alone will not stop this from happening. At some point, we need to start criticizing the systems, the organizations (companies, governments, societies), and the individuals who are making this kind of destruction possible.
So when you argue that you feel dissatisfaction because you are “not a perfect man,” you are missing part of the point: some of your dissatisfaction results from the wrongful acts, the incompetence, the mistakes and stupidities of other people, particularly people who have more power than you. I agree that it is probably not polite — or wise — for an employee to complain about his or her boss on Facebook. (Especially when his or her profile is not private!) However, I think that in Korean society, there is a profound intolerance for criticism among those in power. During the Administration of the current President, it was declared that people “should not swear” about the government or President. It was not made illegal, mind you, it was just a demand from the President. I understand that in Korean society, it is common for people who have less power (for example, younger people) to show “respect” even when they don’t feel respect for someone with more power (for example, someone older).
However, this ignores the fact that it’s not just you that is imperfect. Your president, too, is imperfect, as are your commanders in the army, the bosses you will someday work for, and so on. Everyone — regardless of age, of power, of experience, of gender, of connections — is imperfect, and can learn from criticism. To me, when the leader of a democracy is so sensitive to criticism that his representatives warn people not to curse or swear about him, it signals that (a) he believes he deserves special treatment, and (b) he is unwilling to listen to criticism.
You’re right that complaining about someone online is not productive — but the important question here is, why do people do it? I’d say one reason is that public criticism is so socially unacceptable in Korea. Every time I see videos online showing confrontations on the subways or buses in Seoul, one feature is that very few people get involved, or tell people to stop behaving badly. But many, many people comment angrily online (often without even knowing the context of the video). In other words, the Internet is Korea’s safe place to complain about people. It’s probably unhealthy, but if you want to know why it happens so much here — much more than in the English-speaking world, in my experience — you need to ask yourself why people are resorting to the internet instead of saying something in a more appropriate situation.
Many writers have commented on how military command structure affects the workplace social structure, and I’m certain this includes corporate willingness to air out criticism. When a worker is unhappy, there needs to be a place and time for him or her to mention criticisms; in fact, employers who give this chance to employees, and are honestly willing to listen, will be able to resolve conflicts and improve working conditions. Korean workers need to become more willing to express their dissatisfaction to their bosses, of course — but I suspect that their bosses will need to change a lot before workers will be willing to dare to criticise the boss, even sensibly.
(After all, even students who are willing to complain about professors very loudly and constantly — sometimes even in class, when they think a professor isn’t in the room, isn’t listening, or cannot understand them — usually fail to express their criticisms in anonymous course feedback. I can’t help but think their reason is fear — a fear that if they complain, somehow the professor might find out. The fact that not many lecturers get fired from Korean universities due to negative student feedback, even when feedback is used in their evaluations, and even when students have many, many complaints, cannot be explained in any other way than that they are not expressing those complaints, even when they are able to do so anonymously!)
Anyway, I’m not attacking you personally, or your argument. I just don’t agree with you about complaining. In fact, one very smart artist called intellectuals “professional complainers” and I think this is basically correct: intellectuals in every society make a job out of complaining — in an intelligent, thoughtful way — about things that are wrong with the society, with an organization, and so on. Complaining, after all, is how we got democracy: the idea comes from the fact that people need to be free to complain, without having a king who will kill them for doing so. Complaining, as I see it, is not just a right, but a duty, and if we fail that duty, then improvement of problems becomes impossible.
Seen that way, it’s important not to have too positive a mind: it can blind you to real, and important, problems!